X marks the little black book

As I walked home from work on my last day there, due to being made redundant, I spied a black object lying in the gutter. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a small black notebook.

Looking around the street, to see if anyone had recently dropped it, I noticed nobody around and picked it up.

It was well-worn and almost fully written inside. I flicked through the pages casually, shrugged my shoulders and proceeded home.

Upon arriving home, I threw my work bag and the notebook on the study desk. I then took a quick shower and fixed something up for dinner.

After eating, I settled down for a bit of TV before bedtime. Fully engrossed in the movie on screen, I totally forgot about the notebook I found.

After taking a quick toilet break, I was walking back to the living room when I noticed the black notebook on my desk. I took it with me as I went back to the TV.

The movie was so thrilling, that I only opened the notebook when there was a commercial break.

As I flicked through the pages, what I read was so amazing that I totally forgot about the movie I was watching. This little book seems to be some sort of treasure map, with the ‘X’ right here in my city.

As I absorbed every word and picture on every page, my heart was beating so fast, as I pictured what I could do with that treasure in my life.

After a fitful sleep, I woke early, washed up and had a light breakfast. I took the notebook and followed the trail to the ‘X’.

After getting lost on the bus a few times and wandering aimlessly in the wrong direction at regular intervals, I found myself in the city around lunchtime.

After a quick lunch to keep my strength up, it seems that I was near the mysterious ‘X’.

As I neared my destination, I realised that I was almost at my old workplace and after a couple of detours, thanks to some mysterious directions in the notebook, the ‘X’ was at my old work location. What were the odds of that?

When I went to the door of the building, I noticed it was closed but unlocked. Looking around for passersby and seeing nobody, I quickly opened the door and entered.

It was dark but there was a whirring sound coming from my office. I walked quietly but quickly to my old room and peered in.

There were numerous business men in suits standing around using numerous money counting machines. There must’ve been millions of paper money in that room.

Something didn’t seem right with this scenario so I stepped out of the building and placed a call to the police.

Within the time of a pizza delivery, the cops arrived and I proceeded to tell them what was going on inside my old workplace. They cordoned off the entrances/exits to the building and called for the detectives and SWAT to arrive.

When they arrived, they decided to go for the shock and awe tactic. With flashbangs and warning shouts, they subdued to the criminals and took them into custody.

After the police took a statement from me, they let me go home but they took the little black book as evidence.

Over the following days, the story came to light in all the newspapers. Apparently my workplace was being used by the mob as a money laundering operation in the after-hours.

My old boss and some colleagues were arrested for providing a front for these illegal activities. The reason why I was made redundant was that they were worried I was onto their scheme, but I had absolutely no idea!

As a reward for my vigilance and cracking open a case that’d have gone unnoticed for years, I was awarded $100,000 for exceptional services as a citizen against crime and corruption.

I was over the moon with that. I gave half the reward money to my family for their use and donated $30,000 to my local charity.

The rest of the money I saved, to help me look for a job that, hopefully, didn’t involve any criminal activities.

And I also bought myself a little black book, to write down details of my exciting adventures to either be published as my memoir or a thriller novel.